Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
If it’s spring, there is a wonderful likelihood that Curtis McKenzie is taking part in for the Calder Cup.
Sturdy as all the time, the Texas Stars captain, now in his twelfth skilled season, performed in 67 of the workforce’s 72 regular-season video games and completed with 15 objectives and 15 assists. In his 4 seasons since returning to Cedar Park, he has dressed for 272 of the Stars’ 288 video games plus 17 extra within the playoffs, regardless of a bodily, grinding model in opposition to opponents usually a decade or extra youthful than him.
McKenzie received the Calder Cup with Texas as a rookie in 2014. He went again to the Finals in 2018 earlier than the Stars misplaced a Recreation 7 in opposition to the Toronto Marlies; he churned out 11 objectives in 22 video games that postseason. In 2019 with the Chicago Wolves, he was within the Finals once more.
Drafted by Dallas in 2009, McKenzie received the Dudley (Purple) Garrett Memorial Award because the AHL’s rookie of the yr in 2013-14. After 5 seasons with the group – together with 99 video games within the NHL – he spent two years with the Vegas group and one with St. Louis group earlier than returning to the Stars in 2021.
Texas, which begins its 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs with Recreation 1 of a best-of-five division semifinal collection in Grand Rapids tonight, has each motive to assume that it may possibly make one other run this season. The Stars went back-and-forth with Milwaukee for the Central Division lead down the stretch, finally ending simply two factors behind the Admirals.
McKenzie has lengthy been a reliable playoff producer. He had seven factors in seven video games final spring, and he has put up 65 factors (29 objectives, 36 assists) in 90 profession Calder Cup Playoff video games throughout 9 journeys to the AHL postseason.
And for youthful teammates like Matěj Blümel, Arttu Hyry, Antonio Stranges and this yr’s Garrett Award winner Justin Hryckowian, McKenzie could be appeared towards as somebody who has been by every part that the AHL can throw at a participant. The regular-season grind. The lengthy postseason. Even Recreation 7 of the Calder Cup Finals.
Loads of Texas alumni have used their postseason expertise to prepared them for NHL success. The Stars performed in three Finals through the 2010’s, with rosters together with Jamie Benn, Jamie Oleksiak, Radek Faksa, Roope Hintz and Jason Dickinson. The Calder Cup Playoffs could be the ultimate enhance {that a} prospect must land a full-time NHL job.
McKenzie, who’s finishing the ultimate yr of a two-year AHL contract he signed in 2023, understands how reaching the NHL could be an all-consuming thought for younger gamers. However he additionally is aware of that there’s enterprise to deal with at this degree additionally.
“Most guys that play on this league, the vast majority of them [were] stars on their workforce and every part has gone typically nicely of their entire profession,” McKenzie mentioned earlier this season. “So it’s the primary time loads of gamers hit adversity, and it may be robust. I simply attempt to assist them out, to remain on monitor, to belief their route and course of as a result of it’s not in a single day that everybody will get to the NHL, in the event that they get there in any respect.”
If the common season assessments younger gamers, the postseason is one other degree altogether. Absolutely there will likely be adversity for the Stars – or another hopeful Calder Cup champion – this spring. There are elimination video games. Double and triple time beyond regulation. The video games accumulate rapidly. So does the bodily wear-and-tear.
Improvement is such a dominant theme within the AHL, and the Calder Cup Playoffs type a large portion of that technique of taking younger expertise and turning somebody into an NHL participant.
“[The AHL] is a tricky league,” McKenzie mentioned. “You’re that near being an NHL participant, and all that’s on everybody’s minds is, ‘How do I get there?’ You simply must work arduous and push ahead and carry on the sport by the robust occasions as a result of the AHL can swallow guys up. You wish to get guys one of the best alternative to be able to maneuver on to the subsequent degree.
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
